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While watching True Life: I Have Broke Parents, you may have noticed that Jobe and Ashley live in the same part of the country -- Southeastern Michigan (Jobe lives outside Detroit and Ashley lives in Flint). It’s a great place full of proud people and amazing culture, but because of the decline of the auto companies, the job situation there is bleak. In Ashley’s county, the unemployment rate is about 66% higher than the national average. In Jobe’s county, the unemployment rate is nearly twice the national average.

True Life worked with many organizations in Michigan to find people like Jobe and Ashley for our documentary. Here are a few you can contact to look for opportunities to donate or volunteer:

The United Way helps people get through unemployment and foreclosure:
United Way of Southeastern Michigan

Both Jobe and Ashley had to go to food banks because they couldn’t afford to feed their whole families, even with the help of food stamps. Here are some organizations that help needy people in Michigan get enough to eat:
Food Gatherers

Gleaners Food Bank

Food Bank of Eastern Michigan

If you live in Michigan and you’re looking for work, here are two great places to start:
Michigan Works

No Worker Left Behind

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One of the most worthwhile things about working on I’m Changing My Sex was being able to get an up close and personal view of the compelling and often misunderstood topic of transgenderism. The responses we received after we put out the casting call were overwhelming in a really wonderful way, and the transgender community was incredibly supportive of the show right from the beginning.

As we started to research the topic, we soon discovered that documenting the entire sex change process from start to finish would take much longer than the time we had to complete this project. We caught up with Elle and Ted during the very final stages of their transitions; in order for them to go through the surgical procedures that you see in the show, they first had to undergo intensive therapy and live full-time as the opposite gender for an entire year or more to be totally sure that they were ready to make such irreversible changes. And before going under the knife or even starting hormone therapy, both of them had to present their surgeons with letters from their therapists that stated that they did truly believe that they had what has been defined as gender dysphoria. To quote Elle, “It means that I’m not crazy. Basically all those things say … you’re not 'nuts,' you don’t have a 'brain tumor' pushing on your head that’s making you think you have gender identity disorder, my dog didn’t tell me to do it, I’m not getting told to do things from, you know, an alternate dimension…" These letters also gave them full approval to get medical treatment -- in the form of surgery or hormones.

What surprised us the most as we began filming was how determined both characters were to make these changes. Part of our job as producers is to capture all the ups and downs of making such a life-changing move, and before we started shooting, I think we automatically expected them to go through some kind of period of doubt or questioning about having these major surgeries. We expected someone to break down, or panic that maybe surgery wouldn’t fix the underlying unhappiness. That never happened. Both Elle and Ted were, as Ted said after his consultation, “full steam ahead” and had “no second thoughts” about surgery whatsoever. And their resolve made a lot more sense to us once we got to know them and realized that this was not just a medical procedure to them. This was a way to finally allow them to show off on the outside who they truly were on the inside –- and, in fact, nothing on the inside was changing. In the end, it was really inspirational to watch these two fight for the chance to feel comfortable in their own skin for the first time. They really deserved it.

--True Life: I'm Changing My Sex producers, Dani & Roopa

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After working on several True Life documentaries, there was something especially unique (and challenging) during the production on this one: it was almost impossible to anticipate how things would end.

While filming with Amanda, the struggle between the father of the baby, Rob, and her was a deeply emotional experience, and I found my own personal opinions being challenged quite frequently. It really is impossible to explain how hard of a decision Amanda and Rob had to make. Up until the last few months of filming, we assumed that the fate of the adoption would hinge on Rob’s decision and couldn’t believe our ears when Amanda told us that she had changed her mind to parent the baby due to her own doubts. It was really hard to keep our emotions to ourselves and stay neutral (as to not influence or change Amanda’s story in any way). We were, of course, happy for Amanda and Rob, but also deeply heartbroken for the prospective adoptive parents, Cliff and Conio.

It was an incredibly humbling experience filming with Amanda, Rob, Cliff and Conio. The amount of pressure and emotional stress they have all had to go through (and continue to go through still) is unfathomable. I learned so much and am so grateful to them for letting us into their lives and allowing us to share their experiences.
-- Hagan, True Life Producer

Check out updates from Amanda, Rob, Cliff and Conio and watch a deleted scene from the episode after the jump!

Amanda
Making the decision to not give my baby up for adoption was very difficult. The struggle I had with Rob, and the struggle I had with myself in the end was just too much to handle. Also, in the end my girlfriend was having second thoughts about the whole thing and that was completely a deal breaker for me.
Read More...

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Working on True Life: I’m Placing My Baby For Adoption was an experience I will never forget. Kayla, Dale and Michaela allowed us to be present during the most personal moments of their lives. We were able to film very emotional and revealing conversations that truly represent the process Kayla went through. It was amazing how honest she was with us about the feelings she experienced during this time.

The highly emotional aspect of this episode was the biggest challenge. After Bella was born, I was surprised when Kayla started to doubt whether she could do the adoption or not. I quickly learned that choosing adoption is a decision that some birth mothers have to make twice -- before and after the baby is born. Of course, we did not tell Kayla what we thought was the right thing for her to do.

I spent over 30 days with Kayla on location and filmed just over 100 hours of her story. It was one of true inspiration and I'm very grateful she let us capture it.
-- Petra, True Life Producer

Check out updates from Kayla, Dale and Michaela and watch a deleted scene from the episode after the jump!

Kayla
My life has been going well since filming ended. I've been going to school to get my GED so that I can attend college. I've also been making friends and getting lots of tattoos. Bella is doing good -- she is so big now. I feel bad cause I'm not the person who gets to watch her grow. Still, I've been sober for over a year and I'm hoping to one day meet a good guy and have more babies.
Read More...

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A note from Craig D'Entrone, the producer of True Life: I Can't Sleep:

I'm telling everyone to remind me never to work on another documentary about sleep deprivation. It's not that it wasn't fun, or that I didn't totally enjoy spending time with Krystal, Kelsey and Newell. It's just that there was no way for me and my fellow producers and camera people (Bill Badgley, Morgan Robinson and Hagan Hinshaw) to film this without becoming sleep deprived ourselves.

We had to film people who didn't go to sleep until 3, 4, 5 in the morning and then got up for school/work just a few hours later. That meant we had to stay up a bit later than them and get up a bit earlier than them. We tried setting up a camera with night vision or switching off camera people, but nothing seemed to work as well as just following around our subjects like we always do for True Life -- one on one, in real time.

After just a couple days of filming, we were barely able to function. Luckily for Bill, Hagan, Morgan and I, we were only sleep deprived for a few nights at a time. Krystal, Kelsey and Newell had to live their lives like that every day for years. Below, get an update on how all three are doing with their disorder.

KELSEY:
The first day my family and I were being filmed, we were all super nervous! It was strange to feel so on display, and we were all really conscious of every thing we said and did. After a few days though, we started to chill out and be ourselves. The one thing I couldn't seem to shake the whole time was trying not to look at the camera! It was so much harder than I thought...

Even though it was weird being filmed during the day, it was so much weirder when I was trying to fall asleep. The camera definitely added pressure to get to bed. Waking up to a black box in my face was also tough. Once I was completely awake, the first thought through my head was always, "Oh no! What do I look like?!?!"
Read More...

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The producers of True Life are sometimes forced to keep a secret from someone we're following because revealing it would interfere with the story. This was the case with True Life: I'm Getting Married 2. We knew that in order for us to follow Jason's surprise planning we would need to keep the actual topic of the show a secret from his bride-to-be. So, we decided to tell Melissa that we were filming a True Life about Jason studying abroad.

Initially, Melissa was excited about the show. She’s a fan of True Life and was looking forward to participating. Once we got to Paris, however, we mainly followed Jason by himself because he couldn’t plan the wedding with Melissa around. He was away from Melissa for long periods of time with the excuse that he had to show us what it was like to study abroad before returning home the following week. For Melissa, this was very tough since she was hoping they could spend quality time together taking in the sights. Beyond this, we were also nervous that Melissa would be upset when she found we had fibbed, and would want us to leave.

Luckily when Jason revealed the surprise in the park and told Melissa the truth about why we were there, she could not have been more excited. She told Jason that all the time he’d been spending away from her planning the wedding was totally worth it. Melissa was also excited to have us at the wedding (and that her wedding would be on MTV!), which was a huge relief for all of us.

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